UWA breakthrough in superbug battle

Camera IconUWA researchers have made a breakthrough. FilePicture: Getty Images

Perth researchers have uncovered a potential way to combat antibiotic-resistant superbugs that cause 700,000 deaths a year globally.

They have discovered a protein which causes multi-drug resistance by masking bacteria against the body’s immune system and key types of antibiotics.

Superbugs are strains of bacteria that have changed after coming into contact with an antibiotic.

They include the resistant bacteria that cause pneumonia and urinary tract infections and golden staph, which causes skin infections. University of WA scientists used a special technique known as X-ray crystallography to map the three-dimensional molecular structure of a protein known as EptA.

The international team found that the protein and a previously discovered molecule known as MCR-1 were responsible for multi-drug resistance in many disease-causing bacteria.

In 2015 researchers found that MCR-1 caused resistance to colistin — a last-resort antibiotic used for bacteria that were otherwise untreatable.

It was first detected in China but has since spread across the world. MCR-1 is considered the world’s most dangerous strain of bacteria found in superbugs because it is not limited to a single type of bacteria and is able to spread between different species, significantly increasing its harm.

The UWA scientists said multi-drug resistance in bacteria had been identified as a major worldwide public health concern by the World Health Organisation, which estimated it could cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050.

Lead scientist Alice Vrielink, professor of structural biology with the university’s school of molecular sciences, said how EptA behaved was directly related to its three-dimensional shape.

“This new knowledge of the shape and unique structure of EptA, and of MCR-1, will help scientists develop an effective treatment to prevent antibiotic resistance of these superbugs, a huge step forward for global health,” Professor Vrielink said.

Work to identify potential new therapeutic molecules targeting EptA and MCR-1 was already under way by researchers at UWA, The Marshall Centre for Infectious Diseases and the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The research has been funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and was published in the journal PNAS this week.